Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what recent discussions she has had with Royal Mail on the adequacy of postal deliveries in the lead up to Christmas in Tooting constituency.

I am aware that Royal Mail continues to have service challenges in some postcode areas. I note that Royal Mail management accepts its performance needs to be much better and has started to address this, for example, by recruiting an additional 3,000 postmen and women so far with a further 500 permanent delivery positions a week going forwards.

Ofcom sets and monitors Royal Mail’s service standards and has powers to investigate and take enforcement action where there are reasonable grounds for concluding Royal Mail has failed to achieve its obligations. I note that the regulator recently fined the business £5.6m for failing to meet its service delivery targets in 2022-23 and has committed to closely monitoring Royal Mail’s performance this year.